Thursday, 3 January 2013

Is Pleistocene Re-Wilding Viable for Conservation Today?

The mammoths have vanished, so what do we do now? An obvious answer is to realize the ecological and intrinsic importance of today’s surviving megafauna and do our best to protect them, but a group of scientists have gone one (controversial) step further: they want to ‘broaden the underlying premise of conservation from managing extinctionto encompass restoring ecological and evolutionary processes’ (Donlan et al 2006: 660). They argue for the introduction of Pleistocene rewilding in North America, which involves:

Reintroducing modern species descended from Pleistocene species that once lived in North America OR

Reintroducing ecological proxies for Pleistocene species if the above do not exist

Megaherbivores and large carnivores play important roles in
ecosystems and have been dominant in ecosystems for the past 200 million years,
until their widespread extinction in the late Pleistocene. Given their
instrumental roles (See also my previous blog post on the role of megaherbivores
and extinction consequences), it must follow that restoring them would have
positive benefits.

Large predators’ roles include the following:

Buffering against climate change: To
cite a contemporary example, evidence from a Wilmers and Getz (2005) paper
shows that the reintroduction of gray wolves have helped maintain carrion availability
for the survival of other scavenger species, important since snow thaws earlier
in Yellowstone due to climate warming.

Controlling disease (some of which can
spread to humans): Another
contemporary example concerns the lyme disease epidemic (spread to humans by
ticks) which occurred in North America in the early 2000s was probably caused
by peak populations of white-tailed deer, once kept under control by gray
wolves.

Grey Wolf

Evolutionary and
Conservation Benefits

Pleistocene rewilding is a way to transform conservation
biology from mere preservation of existing species to reconstructing ecosystem
processes and species interactions. Donlan et al (2005) argues that what is ‘natural’
must be challenged; we often think of the 1492 Columbian landfall on America
and the state of the environment then as what is a ‘natural benchmark’ for
conservation, but this fails to recognize the rich biodiversity of the late
Pleistocene period. There are also additional positive benefits from
maintaining large viable populations of target species to facilitate adaptation
to climate change. North America could provide an additional refugia for
conserving the genetic proxies of Pleistocene megafauna (such as Asian
elephants, a proxy for mastodons), since these are endangered in Asia and
Africa, the only 2 continents which preserve a large diversity of megafauna.

We do not really understand how Pleistocene ecosystems
functioned and therefore should not attempt to reconstruct them. Rather,
Pleistocene rewilding may disrupt contemporary ecosystems, e.g. by introducing
new diseases, etc. Also, the effect of introducing ‘exotic’ species is unknown.
Even when reintroducing native species, their effects on the ecosystem are
unpredictable. For example, the introduction of one-humped camel in wreaked
havoc on Australia’s desert ecosystems as they selectively ate rare plant
species.

Reintroductions Do
Not Always Work

Many modern-day examples show that even reintroducing native
species within their original geographic regions is not always successful. The
most successful examples (Przewalski’s horse and the Asian ass) are those where
only a short time between extinction in the wild and reintroduction, as the
ecosystem would not have changed much in that time frame. In other examples,
problems such as unexpected changes in environmental conditions, naivete
towards predators and diseases have rendered reintroductions unsuccessful.

Will Not Restore
Evolutionary Potential

Most of the species which are supposedly to be introduced as
part of rewilding are genetically distinct from their ancestors, e.g. cheetahs
and lions. Thus, introducing them would not help restore the evolutionary
potential that once was during Pleistocene times.

Anti-Conservation
Backlash

Local and state governments in North America already face
much trouble from people about fears over native predator attacks, e.g. cougar
attacks on joggers. The introduction of exotic species such as elephants as
proxies for mastodons for example would generate even more human-wildlife
interactions and conflicts, such as those currently taking place in Africa.

My Thoughts

After reading all of this, I feel that the Rubenstein paper
points out many pertinent problems that rewilding poses. Rewilding of native
species, on the other hand, is a more promising aim for modern conservation.
Pleistocene rewilding is much more difficult and prone to ecosystem-devastating
error. The difficulties in even establishing the causes of late Pleistocene
megafauna extinction reveals our lack of certainty about late Pleistocene
environments. Rather than trying to enforce ‘revolutionary’ ideas, I think
modern conservation should focus on preserving existing environments and
rewilding (where appropriate) of native species.

I would like to end off with a link to an organization
supporting the contemporary re-wilding agenda. Its ideas centre mostly around
preserving ‘keystone’ species like large carnivores which play important roles
in regulating ecosystems.

Nevertheless, the controversy surrounding rewilding and the
question of whether this is right for the environment goes a long way to highlight
the fact that once these magnificent giants are lost, they have almost
certainly vanished for good.

4 comments:

I find it interesting that people are considering pleistocene rewildering but I would like to question the motivation behind such moves. Rubenstein et. al. (2006) mentions that pleistocene rewilders justify such methods on ethical and aesthetic grounds and claim that we have a moral responsibility to make amends for the overexploitation by our ancestors.

This might cause a shift in focus from traditional methods of conservation to these 'controversial' methods that have a higher degree of uncertainty in their ecological impacts. Consequently, this might lead to a missed opportunity in conserving some of the endangered species considered for rewildering.

Every single geologic interval is usually identified by what scientists phone a kind area. A kind area is often a spot that's regarded as the 1st identified well-defined place where proof of any time-period transfer, or maybe Pleistocene, e.g difference involving grow and also creature areas, could be observed. Simply speaking, it is the primary discovery associated with some essential geological celebration seen as a a big difference in the kinds of types and also populations associated with grow and also creature fossils. you can read more http://mordo-crosswords-solution.blogspot.com/2014/07/pleistocene-eg.html

The main problem the rewilders confront is they propose to restore a simulated not a real prehistoric megafaunal environment. It won't be like the original because the original is gone forever. And the new megafauna will not look nor thrive in ways comparable to how the prehistoric megafauna lived. Any scientific insight we might gain would not tell us why the ancient megafauna vanished in the first place. We are tempted to play God with Nature because we feel guilt over the impact of our actions upon the natural world and we don't take into consideration the fact making amends for it might have unforeseen consequences that would make a mess of the goal of restoring the vitality of previously extinct eco-systems. Before we do that, we should make sure we're doing that for the right reasons and not merely to flatter our obvious human vanity.

The creatures living there now need to be taken into account as well as potential new species that might compete with them without necessarily strengthening their survival prospects. And of course we would have to ensure the potential new species can thrive in the proposed environment in which we want to place them. Rewilding raises a lot of questions to which we lack good answers. Until we get them, we should be advised to proceed with all due caution.